Iowa City Today

Iowa Hawkeyes Set to Host No. 6 Oregon in Key Top-25 Matchup

The Iowa Hawkeyes football team will face the sixth-ranked Oregon Ducks on Saturday, November 8, at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City. The game marks Iowa’s first home contest against a top-10 opponent since 2022 and is set for a 2:40 p.m. CT kickoff, broadcast on CBS.

This matchup is significant as it is the first top-25 battle at Kinnick Stadium since 2021, when Iowa defeated Penn State. The Hawkeyes are ranked No. 24 in the Week 11 coaches’ poll, their first ranking since early in the season.

Iowa enters the game with a 6-2 overall record and a 4-1 mark in Big Ten play, which is their best conference start through five games since 2015. The team became bowl eligible after defeating Minnesota in Week 9, making them eligible for postseason play for the thirteenth consecutive year and twenty-third time in twenty-five seasons.

Quarterback Mark Gronowski has been a key contributor this season. He leads the team with eleven rushing touchdowns—tied for most by an Iowa quarterback in a single season—and has scored a touchdown in every game so far, setting a Big Ten single-season record for consecutive games with a rushing touchdown. Gronowski has also completed over sixty-four percent of his passes and surpassed both eleven thousand career passing yards and two thousand career rushing yards.

Graduate running back Kamari Moulton returned from injury to lead all Hawkeye running backs with four hundred thirty-five yards on eighty-two attempts this season. In recent weeks, he posted notable performances against Penn State and Wisconsin.

On special teams, graduate Kaden Wetjen received The Jet Award as college football’s top return specialist—the first Hawkeye to do so—and leads the nation in combined return yards through eight games.

Kicker Drew Stevens broke the program record for career field goals made earlier this season and now has seventy field goals over his four-year career at Iowa.

Defensively, Iowa ranks second nationally in total defense (234.9 yards per game), fourth in scoring defense (12.4 points per game), fifth in passing defense (151 yards per game), and eighth against the run (83.4 yards per game). The unit recorded three interceptions against Minnesota last week and allowed only one hundred thirty-three total yards—the fewest surrendered to Minnesota since 2008.

Head coach Kirk Ferentz continues to add milestones during his twenty-seventh season at Iowa. Earlier this year he became the winningest coach in Big Ten history with his two hundred sixth victory as a member of the conference, surpassing Woody Hayes’ previous record.

Saturday’s meeting will be just the fourth all-time between Iowa and Oregon; Oregon holds a two-to-one edge historically but has not played at Kinnick Stadium since 1994.